All of the various printers commercially available are installed on the floor or on a desktop for use. Today, how ever, a thin and compact printer is being developed which has a thickness of several cm or even 1 cm or less and which is intended for use as a portable printer, a desktop memo printer or the like. When in use, such a printer is connected to a computer serving as a host. Thus, when the host is a desktop type or a notebook type, the compact printer is accommodated in the device bay for integration, or the printer is formed as a portable one and docked with a PDA, a mobile phone or the like for use, whereby a space saving construction is realized, thus avoiding the inconvenience of arranging or retaining the printer separately from the host.
However, a printer of the type which is to be accommodated in a device bay has to be produced in a size in conformity with the specifications of the device bay. Further, it must allow connection with an interface inside the device bay. Thus, it must be designed and produced as a printer for a specific device bay, which means it has hardly any versatility to other usage. Further, to accommodate the printer in a device bay, it is necessary for that bay to be empty, so that, in some cases, it cannot be used with other peripheral devices, such as a CD-ROM drive.
In the case of the type of printer to be docked with a PDA or the like, a design is required which allows docking with the apparatus on the host side, resulting in a rather poor versatility. Further, when the design of the apparatus on the host side is changed, the printer design has to be also changed in all probability, which is disadvantageous from the economical viewpoint.
In view of this, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer which is compact, which can be used integrally with various types of computers, which contributes to space saving, and which need not be supported individually. Further, it is another object of the present invention to provide a printer which is of high versatility and which can be used integrally with apparatuses of various manufactures or types.